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most of those were old, leaving but few 

 young bees to start and protect brood-rear- 

 ing this spring, which commenced the latter 

 part of March. We put into winter quar- 

 ters on Dec. 1, 1887, 300 colonies in two cel- 

 lars, where the temperature was kept at 

 from 40° to 45° ; on taking them out on 

 March 26, we found our loss to be only 8 

 colonies. Bee-keepers in this vicinity, who 

 work on the let-alone plan, have lost nearly 

 all. There was great loss of bees in this 

 State the past winter, and it will take sev- 

 eral years to replace them. If we are 

 favored with occasional rains, we may ex- 

 pect a surplus from clover, though the 

 drouth of last year killed most of it, and the 

 dry spell we had during last month, has 

 done it a great inj ury. We find some clover 

 looking exceedingly well. 



I^ot a «Jolouy I-ost.— Lewis Carbiuo, 

 Potsdam, N. Y., on April 26, 1888, says : 



I put out my bees to-day, and found them 

 all right. I had 42 colonies in a bee-house, 

 and all wintered in good condition. 



Bees are Swarming. — Mr. Jos. E. 

 Shaver, Friedens, Va., on April 30, 1888, 

 writes : 



Bees are doing well now on fruit blossoms. 

 I have not had any swarms yet, but one of 

 my neighbors had a swarm yesterday, and 

 another neighbor had a fine swarm today, 

 which he saved ; but the one who had the 

 swarm yesterday, was not ready, and had to 

 go 2}4 miles to get fixtures before he could 

 hive the bees ; when he returned the bees 

 had become tired waiting, and left for the 

 woods. The weather is very fine now. 



I have received two packages of the 

 Chapman honey-plant seed from the Com- 

 missioner of Agriculture, and the seed of 

 the first package is up and growing finely. 

 A friend of mine sent for some later, and 

 he received seed of sweet clover, or melilot. 



Drones Flying, etc. — Geo. W. Mor- 

 ris, Cornishville, Ky., on May 2, 1888, says : 



I have had drones flying for three weeks, 

 but this morning I found quite a number of 

 them dead at the front of the hives. I sup- 



Eose that the cool weather which we are 

 aving at present, is the cause. My colonies 

 are more popolous than I have ever had 

 them this early, but the prospect for white 

 clover is very limited at present. I have re- 

 ceived a package of the Chapman honey- 

 plant seed from the Commissioner of Agri- 

 culture, and will plant it in a few days. 

 Will some one in northern Alabama inform 

 me how it would do as a location for an 

 apiary. 



Ileginning in Bee-Keeping.— L. 



W. Lighty, Mulberry, Pa., writes as fol- 

 lows: 



"Buy black bees in box-hives, transfer 

 them to frame hives, and Italianize them." 

 The foregoing advice 1 see so frequently ; 

 I saw it in about the first bee-paper that 1 

 ever read, and to ray sorrow. My experi- 

 ence and observation both show me that the 

 advice is wrong. I have seen dozens of 

 failures by following it. 



1 once bought 3 colonies of bees ui box- 

 hives, and as they were strong colonies, I 

 concluded that I needed some one to help 

 me to bring them home. I employed an old 

 bee-keeper, with smoker, etc. ; hut we did 

 not secure the bees. A few days later I had 

 a greater bee-man to help me, with his im- 

 plement, and he vowed that they must be 

 queer bees if we could not bringthem home: 

 again vcedid not do it, but were stung half 

 to death. We left those bees until winter. 



in zero weather, and then had to go twice 

 before we could conquer tliem. If 1 would 

 have bought a colony of fine Italian bees, 

 in a frame hive, in the beginning, 1 would 

 have been better off in dollars, and would 

 also have escaped many stings. I could 

 then have studied the habits of the bees 

 with more satisfaction, and less pain. I 

 could relate the experience of others, but 

 it would not be very instructive, as they 

 generally gave up bee-keeping in disgust, 

 and never tried it again. My advice is this: 

 Buy a colony of gentle Italians in a mov- 

 able-frame hive, and become acquainted 

 with bees before you try to perform such 

 operations as transferring or Italianizing. 



Hiving Swarms Early, etc. — Mrs. 

 S. E. Sherman, Salado, Tex., on April 37, 

 1888, says : 



The prospects are very flattering here for 

 a good honey crop. I have had 15 swarms, 

 and would have had many more, had I not 

 cut out queen-cells, and given the bees more 

 room, shade and ventilation. I secured 14 

 of the queens in the queen-cage and drone- 

 trap combined. There has been no climb- 

 ing of trees, not a twig has been cut, and 

 they have all been hived without any 

 trouble. My hives are running over with 

 bees. 



Severe tVluter and Cold Spring. 



— Wm. B. Ray, Alaska, Wis., onlMay 7,1888, 

 says : 



Bees have wintered well Ihere. The win- 

 ter was a very severe one, with a very cold 

 April following. There has been only two 

 days when bees could fly. 



I>ate Spring' — Colonies Starved. 



—Charlie W. Bradish, Houseville, N. T., on 

 May 7, 1888, writes : 



Bees have wintered in poor condition in 

 this part of the country. It has been a very 

 late spring,and many colonies have starved. 

 I have just finished putting bees out ; when 

 I unite what weak colonies I have, my loss 

 will be about one-third. The first pollen 

 was gathered on May 5, from willows. 



The Shaking or Palsy Bee>Dis- 



case.— N. M. Middlebrook, Patterson, 

 Tex., on April 23, 1888, says : 



My bees have been dying badly since last 

 fall, with the shaking or palsy disease. I 

 never saw the like before. Out of 56 colo- 

 nies, 46 or 48 have the disease badly. I have 

 lost 8 colonies, and of some of them, the 

 ground in front ot the hive has been covered 

 every day since early last fall. Several col- 

 onies now show only a little of the symp- 

 toms of the disease. I have had several 

 swarms. 



How tlie Bees have Wintered.— 



O. R. Goodno, Carson City, Mich., on May 



5, 1888, writes : 



It is hard to guess the result of the win- 

 tering of the bees the past winter. I put 

 105 colonies in the cellar, and on March 19 

 I took out 100 colonies, and returned them 

 the next day. On April 25 I took tlieni out 

 again, with six more dead ones, and many 

 more have since died. The nights have 

 been cold, and ice formed as thick as win- 

 dow-glass. More bees will die. I h;ul out- 

 doors 28 colonies in Root chaff hives, and on 

 March 19 three colonies were dead, and 

 since then several more have died. The 

 weather is too cold to try to examine them. 

 Soft maple, elm, and a portion of the wil- 



lows have past their bloom, without giving 

 the bees a chance to visit their flowers. The 

 few box-elders within reach of my bees are 

 visited when it is warm enough for bees to 

 fly. It is anything but encouraging, so far, 

 but it reminds me of the Dutchman who 

 bought an organ to place in his saloon to 

 draw custom. It was effectual ; he held his 

 crowd until a late hour, when Catherina, 

 his wife, came down stairs, and ordered the 

 music stopped. To this Hans said : " What 

 for you s'pose I buy that orison ? Wind 

 her up, John !" So with the bee-business— 

 wind ner up again ; make it boom if pos- 

 sible. 



6ood Honey Season Expected. 



—A.R.Simpson, State Line, Ind., on May 



8, 1888, says : 



The prospect is favorable for a good honey 

 season in this locality. We are having good 

 rains each week, that will bring out white 

 clover, which is our principal honey source. 



Cold and Backward Spring. — 



Alex. Sherington, Dutton, Mich., on May 4, 

 1888, writes : 



It has been a very cold and backward 

 spring. When soft maple and elm was in 

 bloom, it was so cold that the bees could 

 not fly, but the last week of April they did 

 very well on willows. The hard maples are 

 blooming, and the weather is damp. The 

 spring ot 1886 I bought one colony of bees 

 for $8.00, increased them to 4 colonies, and 

 took 100 pounds of comb honey in one- 

 pound sections. The winter ot 1886-87 1 

 wintered my bees on the summer stands, 

 packed in straw, and had no loss. Last sea- 

 son was a poor one, but I increased the 4 

 colonies to 13, by natural swarming, and ob- 

 tained 1.50 pounds of honey from Alsike 

 clover and linden. I had one colony that 

 was hived on June 13, and on July 4 it had 

 three brood-chambers full, and 38 one-pound 

 sections ot linden honey. The past winter 

 I lost 5 colonies, and all the rest were in 

 good condition except one, and that was 

 very weak. On April 35 I unpacked my 

 bees, and by changing them around, I have 

 the weak one as strong as any. On April 

 27 I caught a small swarm on the fence ; I 

 took it home, hived it on 5 frames full of 

 comb, and a frame of brood, and now 1 

 have a very fine colony. 



Results of tlie Season.— Mr. Wm. 



Crowley, Redwood Falls, Minn., reports 



thus : 



After puttins 30 colonies in the cellar in 

 November, 1886, I began to figuie on adopt- 

 ing a hive and improving my strain of bees 

 for the next season. Upon these two fea- 

 tures, with a little care and attention, de- 

 pends the crop of surplus honey. 1 sent to 

 apiarists in different parts of the United 

 States for samples of the hives they used, 

 and also bought an extractor, and a circular- 

 saw for making hives. After the samples 

 arrived, I examined each one carefully, and 

 found some good points in each of tliem, 

 and also some features that I did not like. 

 It costs money tn change the fixtures of a 

 large apiary to keep up with the times. I 

 finally constructed a hive incorporating the 

 desirable functions of each ot them, leaving 

 out the objectionable ones, according to my 

 opinion. 1 have named it the Minnesota 

 hive. It takes a frame the same as the 

 Langstroth hive, except the frame is 1-inch 

 shorter ; a super holding four tiers of one- 

 pound boxes just lits on top of the hives. 

 W^hen spring arrived I put mv bees out on 

 April 9, a little too early. One-fourth of 

 them were rather weak, and one queenless 

 with a drone lnyer. 



